Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 07:24:37 +0200
From: E. Galmor
Subject: The Perfect Form - Part I - Blue Sapphire - Chapter 10 - Savior
Please send comments to "The.Perfect.Form@gmail.com"
Chapter 10 -- Savior
I was awakened to his gentle caress. A wave of warmth washed over me as I
felt his skin touch my own. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally.
Physically because what I experienced the night before was something no
writer could ever write about, no painter could ever paint. It was a
feeling of connection transcending all known boundaries; mentally because I
was haunted by my past and by my present. I felt like an unwilling
participant in some great cosmic game, and I didn't know the rules. I had
killed a man in self defense, yet his death has left a void in at least one
person's heart. A void that could never be filled, a void I created. I also
felt that I needed to guard what I had with life. If anything were to ever
happen to Chris...
"You're awake," his sweet soft voice came from above me.
"I'm awake," I smiled.
"It's amazing. Your skin is so soft, so gentle. Yet nothing we know can
penetrate it."
I felt extremely self-conscious all of a sudden. I withdrew from his touch.
"I'm gonna go brush my teeth."
"Don't do this, Adam." I felt his hand on my shoulder. Of course, it had no
real power to stop me, but I stopped just the same.
"Don't do what?"
"Feel awkward around me. Please." He moved close and put his arms around
me. "I love you, Adam. I love you! You don't have to hide anymore. You can
be who you are, I will never judge you. How can I make you understand I
will never stop loving you -- no matter what?"
I bit my lower lip and put my hand on his. "I'm sorry, Chris, I don't mean
to be a jerk. It's just... I spent so much time hiding who I am; my mind
can't comprehend how someone can love someone like me.
"Yes, you are different. Yes, you're not like other people. But so what?!
Why do you need to be ashamed of it? I love you for who YOU are. I accept
you for who YOU are! I want so desperately for you to feel free with me."
"I will. I promise. You just have to give me a little time, I..." I never
got a chance to finish. He spun me around and planted his lips on mine in
one of our most passionate kisses. "I will wait for you forever,
Adam. Forever."
I started trembling again as he held me in his arms.
"Come on -- let's go."
"Where?"
He didn't answer; he just took my hand and led me to the bathroom.
"You do your business, and I'll turn on the water." He whispered in my ear,
"I don't want to be apart from you for even a second."
He wanted us to take a shower together. I was thrilled and mortified at the
same time. I went to relieve myself as he turned on the water. The room
started filling up with steam, and I let myself relax under its calming
effect. I could afford to relax. Christian instilled a sense of security
and comfort within me I never knew existed. For the first time I allowed my
guard to go down a bit, not thinking about every move, every word, ahead of
time.
"Come on! The water's great!"
I took a deep breath and braced myself. I had nothing to fear. After last
night, after that wonderful experience, I knew I could share myself with
him this way. The water felt good against my bare feet. He closed the
curtain behind me and looked into my eyes as he took my hands in his.
"Dude... what's your last name?"
An uncontrollable burst of laughter came to me then. We'd spent so much
time together, had gotten so close, yet I'd never told him what my last
name was. Hey, it's not like I knew his.
"It's Mather," I told him, still battling with the last of the giggles.
"Mine is Oliver."
"Christian Oliver. I like it." I smiled shyly as my head went down again. I
was still a little embarrassed standing naked in front of him.
He put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up.
"You're not the only one who's nervous, Mather." He smiled his beautiful
smile. "At the beginning I was scared of the way I felt about you. But I'm
not anymore. I can't really explain it, but I feel like all I need in this
world is you."
I felt the tears coming up again but managed to suppress them for the time
being. I took a long breath to calm myself down.
"Are you all right? I hope I didn't say anything..."
"You didn't. You say all the right things. You do all the right
things. That's what scares me, Chris. This is so much of a one eighty for
me I can barely comprehend it. You are so good to me, you accept me. I'm
not used to that."
He took me into his embrace then and we stayed like that under the torrent
of hot water for a few minutes. Flashes of last night came rushing to my
head. I could see the lights surrounding us. It was like holding him broke
some barrier between us that normal people never break.
"I will never leave you, Adam. Nobody will ever drag me away from you. I
will take care of you. I WILL make you happy!"
"You already have, Chris. All I want out of this life right now is to make
you happy in return."
He plugged the bath and lowered me down so my back was on his chest. And
there we stayed for another hour in complete bliss, as I felt every muscle
in my body melt away.
The knock on the door found both of us with only our towels on. Chris
looked carefully through the peep hole to see who was on the other side.
"It's one of them, the one without the tattoos."
"Eva?"
"Yeah, I think so?"
"Will you guys let me in already?" Her voice came for the other side of the
door.
I nodded my approval at Chris, and he proceeded to usher Eva inside. She
looked down almost immediately after seeing us with only towels to cover
our shame.
"Jesus, guys, would you put some clothes on?"
"What do you want, Eva?" Chris had his usual disposition when it came to
the wonder twins.
"Shut the door."
She moved farther into the room and sat on one of the chairs. I had put on
some clothes in the meantime and stepped out of the bathroom.
"There's a huge hole in the wall..."
"Yes, Eva, we noticed," Chris retorted angrily.
"I thought you'd like to know the guy from yesterday isn't dead. The one
who got electrocuted I mean."
The news did lift a load off my heart. The last thing I wanted was another
body on my conscience.
"He survived?" I had to hear it again.
"Yes, his friends took him to the hospital. He has some burns on his body,
but otherwise he's okay."
"Did you know the sapphire could do this?" Chris interrupted.
"I have no idea what that thing does, Chris."
"Well, what do you know dear Eva?" he said in his most mocking tone. She
made a little face but didn't acknowledge it any further.
"I am telling you all I can, guys."
"Bullshit! It's obvious you and your freak sister know a lot more than
you're telling! There are guys out there trying to kidnap Adam. Some other
guys are trying to kill him! And what do you do? You spread some money
around and hand out cryptic messages."
She took a deep breath as if trying to relax. Chris was getting to her.
"You have to understand that Evelyn and I don't work alone. We are part of
a group of people dedicated to preventing the powers that be from doing
anymore harm to anymore innocent people."
"Like your brother?" I jumped in.
"They have my brother. The Temple has him; you are our only link to The
Temple, and our only chance of ever seeing him again."
"What's the plan then? How do you expect us to help you if you're not
telling us anything?" Chris shouted.
She took another deep breath and closed her eyes.
"There are two groups out there, groups of... special people."
"People like me?"
"In a way. They are all what you would call... supernatural. They all have
the same special origin. But they don't all agree on some... key issues. So
they split into two groups. There is The Temple, and there is The Tower."
"The Tower is trying to kill me?" I said barely above a whisper.
"Yes, so that The Temple won't have you. They only recently discovered your
existence. That's why The Temple decided to collect you. You're too
valuable for them to let The Tower kill you."
"Valuable? I was told I was a disgrace and a failure! I was sent to live
alone the rest of my life in solitude! If I'm so valuable, how come they
didn't "collect" me when I was born?"
She looked at me silently; maybe trying to figure out if she should answer
my questions.
"From what I could gather... your mom... she kept you a secret from your
dad. Only when she realized she couldn't handle you anymore did she tell
your dad about your existence. But Temple rules are very strict. You have
to be born there. Raised there. You were too old. So I guess they decided
to try and see if they could make up for lost time. So they took you to one
of their facilities in Austria. But when you..."
"When I betrayed them and revealed my powers to someone else, they realized
I was not suited to join them."
I saw a tear on her left cheek, and I didn't know why she was so moved by
MY story. She wiped it away and buried her face in the palms of her hands.
"But still... they don't want you dead. But you can't go to them,
Adam. They are not your friends. They will lock you up and do terrible
things to you. They don't consider you one of them anymore."
"And you are... a friend?" Chris spoke at last.
"Well... the closest thing you've got to one. Like Evelyn said -- we need
you. We'll protect you, but when the time comes, you have to help us save
our brother."
"Why are we only meeting you? Where are all those other guys who are in
your merry little group?" Chris' tone was a bit softer, but he was still
very much on his guard.
"Secrecy is very important in our line of work. We were chosen to be your
contacts. There is nothing we can do now but make sure no one finds
you. The woman from yesterday didn't have the chance to report in, and we
made sure to destroy any evidence of the guy who got electrocuted. You're
safe in L.A. for now, but that could easily change. You have to be ready to
move on a moment's notice. In case of an emergency, I can..."
The ring of her cell phone cut her off. She quickly answered.
"Yeah. What? Evelyn, calm down! What do you mean he's... Evelyn! Where? For
how fucking long?! Evelyn?"
She closed her cell phone with a look of terror in her eyes.
"What happened?" A wave of fear overtook me. Was this it? Did they capture
Evelyn and were their way to me? Were they gonna take me away from Chris?!"
She got up from the chair, her face white as a ghost.
"You have to help him, Adam," she whispered.
"Help? Help who? What's going on" Chris was nervous as well.
"Aaron... he's... he's part of the group. He was working undercover inside
The Tower. They got to him. They got..."
"Eva? What's going on?!" I didn't know what they wanted me to do, and my
fear had only gotten worse.
"They threw him inside a frozen lake in northern Canada. He can hold
his..." she was crying heavily now. "He can hold his breath but he'll
freeze to death! He hasn't got much time!"
"Canada? How the fuck do you expect us to get to fucking Canada?! This is
not our problem, Adam!"
"Please! Please you have to help him! I can take you there! That's what I
do -- I can move around the world. If I try hard enough I can take someone
with me! That's what I do, Adam! You have to come with me!"
She was hysterical and she started shaking me violently.
"Please!"
"Adam, no! This could be a trap! She could be trying to kidnap you!"
"I'm not! I swear! I'll take you back, Adam, but you've gotta save him!
You're the only one who can break through the ice in such a short time!
Please!"
Time stopped. All I could hear was the sound of my heartbeats. If I
refused, an innocent man would die. Another death would be on my hands. I
couldn't let it happen.
"Do It. Take me there."
"Adam, no!!!"
"I have to do this, Chris. If I don't I'll never forgive myself."
I quickly stepped towards him and took him into my arms, being careful not
to hold him too strongly.
"We have to go!"
"Adam... don't do this!" His face was covered with tears. It was one of the
most painful sights I had to bear in my life. I will never forget that
face.
"I WILL be back. I love you!" I gave him one last kiss, knowing it could
very well be the last time I saw him.
"Let's go."
Eva nodded, her face white and filled with fear. She took some deep breaths
and took my hands.
"This might feel a little weird." She said with a shaky voice.
And weird it felt. It started with a small tremor traveling up my
spine. Soon another followed, then another. Soon the tremors started going
the other way, colliding with the ones going up. My whole body began to
shake, violently and my eyesight became blurry at best. I began to feel
cold winds at the back of my neck, but I had no idea where they were coming
from. Soon I realized I could no longer see Chris, or anything else for
that matter. Until the second I saw the sky. It was grey, a deep, dark
grey. The wind had gotten stronger, and the long sleeved shirt I was
wearing provided no protection against the freezing cold.
"Evelyn!" Eva's scream shook me from my dazed state, and I saw Evelyn run
towards her sister with a heavy coat. Eva quickly donned it.
"I'm freezing!" I could already feel my bones ache from the cold.
"You can take it, Adam; You gotta hurry!"
Evelyn said nothing and just stared me down. Eva took me by the hand and we
both ran after Evelyn to a large frozen body of water. The wind was so
strong we had to shout just to be heard. I had never experienced such
intense cold in my life, and I wasn't sure if Eva's confidence in my body
was justified. Evelyn was beside herself. Tears were continuously running
down her cheeks, smearing all the black mascara she had around her eyes.
"He's over here!"
We stopped about 25 feet from the shoreline. He was there. A man. A
handsome man with brown hair. Between us was a thick layer of ice, and hard
as he tried to break it with his fists, it did not budge. He was going to
drown, or freeze to death, if I didn't do something fast. I closed my eyes
and willed the cold away. It didn't help much, but I had no more time to
dwell on my own discomfort.
"Do something, you bastard!" Evelyn lunged at me and started hitting me
with her fists. "Fucking do something!"
I stepped a little to the side. I didn't want to accidentally hit the
man. I took a deep breath and smashed my fists against the ice with all I
had. It was as if it was made of paper. My entire hand was now immersed in
the cold water. I made several more holes in the ice, until it was big
enough for the man. He swam towards it with what I guessed was his last
strength and grabbed my hand. When I pulled him out I could see his face
was completely blue. Another minute and he would have been dead.
"Aaron!" Evelyn ran towards him and we both dragged him out of the lake. We
laid him down on the cold ground.
"Aaron? Aaron can you hear me?!"
"Hey, slippers. You came..."
"We have to get him out of here!" Eva shouted towards Evelyn.
"The lodge!" Evelyn shouted back, and before I knew it, I felt the tremors
along my spine again. I closed my eyes and prepared for another weird
trip. The cold gradually subsided, and my body began to relax. The wind
became softer and softer until it simply vanished. In its stead came
comforting warmth. I had no idea where it was coming from, but I let myself
bask in its soft touch. I was now lying on a wooden floor. I could hear
small creaks as I moved, and a blazing fire now burned before my eyes. I
was in some kind of cabin. The walls were all made out of stacked up logs,
and the only thing in the room besides the fireplace was what appeared to
be a bear rug, a moose head hanging on the wall, and a large couch.
Evelyn had taken off all of Aaron's clothes, and I could not help but stare
at his naked form. He was about 5 feet, 5 inches tall, smooth, except for a
thin line of hair from his bellybutton to his... his stuff. Color was
slowly beginning to return to his face now.
"I thought I was a goner." He smiled as Evelyn held his hand to her
face. She bent down to kiss him. I had no idea they were involved. Evelyn
didn't seem like the type.
Eva laid her hand on my shoulder. "Thank you." Evelyn nodded her head
towards me but offered no actual words. A part of me hoped that she would
no longer hate me. I guess I was desperate for the approval of everyone
around me.
"Is that him?"
"Yes, this is Adam. Adam this is Aaron." Eva introduced us as Aaron sat up
and presented his hand to me. I hesitantly shook it.
"I owe you my life, man." He collapsed back onto the wooden floor. He was
still very weak.
"How did you know where I was?"
"Kerry told me."
"You gotta love that little dwarf."
Evelyn laughed softly at his as she patted Aaron's hair.
"Where are we, Eva?"
"This is one of our safe houses. I can't tell you its exact location. Come
near the fire, you need to warm up."
Eva and I moved close to Evelyn and Aaron. My body had by now forgotten all
about the cold. I was still amazed at how resilient it was.
"I'll go get him some clothes," Eva said as she got up and went through a
door to our right.
"I heard a lot of things about you, Adam. I'm glad we finally meet."
I didn't know what to say so I just smiled shyly.
"How did they make you?"
"Oh, slippers, let's not talk about it right now. I just wanna be with
you. I haven't seen you for so long. Oh don't cry! It's okay... we're safe
now."
"Don't you ever do that to me again!" She lay beside him and rested her
head on his bare chest. I no longer felt comfortable watching, so I decided
to get up and see what Eva was doing.
I stepped through the door to find Eva going through some closets, probably
trying to find some clothes for our naked friend.
"I don't know how we can ever repay you for this, but we will; I swear."
"I just want a normal life, Eva. For once... just a normal life."
She looked at me and smiled.
"We all do, Adam. We all want what was taken from us."
"Is Aaron going to be okay?
"Thanks to you. We'll move him to our headquarters where he'll be safe."
"So who's worse? The Temple or the Tower?"
"Oh... I don't know. Both of them. We'll do whatever it takes to get what
they want."
"How do they differ then? What is their big difference in philosophy that
made them two separate groups?"
"I don't know much. It's something that happened about a millennium
ago. It's centered on the subject of God. That's pretty much all I know."
"Are you part of The Temple, too?"
"God, no. Evelyn and I used to be just regular people. That all changed."
"What happened?"
"Well... They don't usually intervene with lives of... let's call them
mortals. But once in a while, when they think they have a breach..."
"You found out about them?"
She wiped a tear from her cheek. "I really have to get Aaron these
clothes. I'll send you back to the hotel after that."
With that she left the room. I sat on the large bed that was present there
and closed my eyes. A voice inside of me told me this was just the
beginning. The Temple people were not going to give up until they found me,
and The Tower members still had me in their crosshairs. I had to tread
carefully. Saving Aaron gave me one of the most wonderful feelings I ever
felt in my life. I had saved a life that would otherwise have been snuffed
out. I brought joy to someone's eyes. I made a difference. I mattered. It's
not bad at all... being someone's savior.
Please send comments to "The.Perfect.Form@gmail.com"